Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[AFOLguy1970]

2 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

I agree with you. I am also hoping for a re-release of CC. If ever we were lucky enough for this to happen I hope it is re-designed to include a detailed interior and not just a straight re-release of the original. My only concern is that they don't do this instead of releasing an all new set next January.

And if they rerelease Cafe Corner with an interior and mods, it will have to be considerably more expensive than the going rate for today's modulars.  Think Town Hall pricing for a smaller building.  

[Bricked1980]

16 hours ago, AFOLguy1970 said:

And if they rerelease Cafe Corner with an interior and mods, it will have to be considerably more expensive than the going rate for today's modulars.  Think Town Hall pricing for a smaller building.  

This is the problem, as you say it no doubt end up being very expensive.

Another problem with re-releasing old sets in general is that it's great for collectors who didn't own the original but not so good for people who do have the original set, especially if the new one has better features and improvements. I wouldn't like to think that a new modular I've just invested in might be re-released in a few years with a better and  improved version.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Bricked1980

[jdubbs]

Taj Mahal was released as-was, without upgrades to newer parts except as dictated by availability (despite the fact that there were many new parts and building techniques that could have improved the design accuracy). If they do reissue Cafe Corner, there is no reason to believe TLG would deviate from this model... i.e., they'd most likely only replace parts that are no longer available or cannot be reproduced for whatever reason. Dreaming of new interiors and upgraded builds just takes a highly speculative (and sadly, unlikely) idea into the realm of pure fantasyland. 

[BrickFit26]

On 2/25/2018 at 1:23 PM, LegoModularFan said:

Hey guys, @Murdoch17 found and shared in his topic a very interesting picture! Here it’s:

And here’s the description of the photo: 

That sounds quite interesting. I searched a bit and found this, this, this photo and a discussion on a website.

It would have been so nice if this theme had become an official theme... What do you think about it?

Wow. Looks very intriguing. But even today LEGO wouldn't do it. I like the style of of time period. I can imagine LEGO doing a new theme of time travel where they go into different time periods to solve cases. I'd love to see that. The minifigures would look amazing.

[LegoModularFan]

9 hours ago, BrickFit26 said:

Wow. Looks very intriguing. But even today LEGO wouldn't do it. I like the style of of time period. I can imagine LEGO doing a new theme of time travel where they go into different time periods to solve cases. I'd love to see that. The minifigures would look amazing.

I know they wouldn’t do it but I’d really love to see a modular inspired by the hotel and the post office, their architecture is just gorgeous!

[Bricked1980]

I was reading through @LegoModularFan's topic about inspirational MOC buildings https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/159039-inspirational-modular-and-non-modular-building-mocs/

It's a great topic and is updated every day with a new selection of hand picked MOCs which are really interesting to look at.

Anyway one of the featured designs recently was this one.

~Schrippenkneter's Bakery by @FiliusRucilo

The first thing I noticed when I saw this is that it uses a very similar snotted tile technique to downtown diner for creating the brick wall pattern on the upper floors. This pre dates DD by 2 years though.

I'm not necessarily suggesting that the lego designers who created DD copied this idea at all but it did make me wonder if sometimes they do take ideas and inspiration from MOCs and amateur models they've seen online.

What do you think? Do you think lego ever unofficially borrow ideas from the AFOL community and can you think of any other instances where past modulars could have been influenced by fan built MOCs?

[LegoModularFan]

1 hour ago, Bricked1980 said:

I was reading through @LegoModularFan's topic about inspirational MOC buildings https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/159039-inspirational-modular-and-non-modular-building-mocs/

It's a great topic and is updated every day with a new selection of hand picked MOCs which are really interesting to look at.

Thanks! I’m really honored! 

1 hour ago, Bricked1980 said:

it did make me wonder if sometimes they do take ideas and inspiration from MOCs and amateur models they've seen online.

What do you think? Do you think lego ever unofficially borrow ideas from the AFOL community and can you think of any other instances where past modulars could have been influenced by fan built MOCs?

There had been a discussion about that a couple of years ago! Really interesting.

Another thing: in the 10th anniversary video of the modulars, there are several modular MOCs shown between 4:42 and 4:48 and Jamie says “When I see what you Lego fans are making, my mind is blown, it’s so inspirational!” That makes me really curious, do they take inspiration or not from the AFOL community?

BTW, I personally have seen MOCs much better than the ones shown in the video and I’m sure that this is made on purpose to show the people that the official modulars are the best ones. I agree with that, it’s quite rare to see modulars that are better than the official modulars but I still think that the MOCs shown in the video are really not good enough to be shown, there’re much better MOCs that deserved to be in the video IMO. Pity 

 

[finnbricker]

Sure they take inspiration from MOCs. With the PR, there was some design feature that people thought was copied from a MOC and if memory serves me right, Jamie actually came here to Eurobricks to explain the case. He said he did look at MOCs and did take inspiration from them occasionally, but in this particular instance the detail had been created by himself years ago (and wasn't published). So it was simply a coincidence.

The DD and the Bäckerei above – while the technique hasn't appeared in official modulars before, it's not supercreative or superunique, so I don't find it improbable that the designer would use it even if he had never seen the Bäckerei before. The Bäckerei, by the way, looks really nice! Just the right amount of details and a great idea to make a roof patter using grilles.

[LegoModularFan]

7 hours ago, finnbricker said:

Sure they take inspiration from MOCs. With the PR, there was some design feature that people thought was copied from a MOC and if memory serves me right, Jamie actually came here to Eurobricks to explain the case. He said he did look at MOCs and did take inspiration from them occasionally, but in this particular instance the detail had been created by himself years ago (and wasn't published). So it was simply a coincidence.

What a coincidence you’ve said that,

9 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

There had been a discussion about that a couple of years ago! Really interesting.

the discussion link goes to the exact post by Jamie himself you’re speaking about! 

 

 

[Bricked1980]

1 hour ago, LegoModularFan said:

the discussion link goes to the exact post by Jamie himself you’re speaking about! 

Just been reading through that discussion from a few years ago, that's interesting and never realised Jamie had his own EB account.

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

I must say i was happily surprised when Jamie posted his comments himself.

[Digger of Bricks]

4 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Just been reading through that discussion from a few years ago, that's interesting and never realised Jamie had his own EB account.

Neither did I! 

[Bricked1980]

3 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Neither did I! 

I wonder if there are any other Lego Designers with Eurobricks Accounts? Better still are there any that post comments regularly? It doesn't look as if JB has been active on here for a couple of years.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Bricked1980

[Digger of Bricks]

16 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

I wonder if there are any other Lego Designers with Eurobricks Accounts? Better still are there any that post comments regularly? It doesn't look as if JB has been active on here for a couple of years.

If they be willing, perhaps some of the moderators/administrators could grant them Lego designer tags. 

[LegoModularFan]

1 hour ago, Bricked1980 said:

I wonder if there are any other Lego Designers with Eurobricks Accounts? Better still are there any that post comments regularly? It doesn't look as if JB has been active on here for a couple of years.

 

1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

If they be willing, perhaps some of the moderators/administrators could grant them Lego designer tags. 

I know also that Marcos Bessa (a.k.a. @marcosbessa) and Mark Stafford (a.k.a. @Nabii) and they've both MOC Expert tags but I agree that it would be great to create a Lego Designer tags! With some research, I'm sure that it would be possible to find some other designers having EB accounts...

[Digger of Bricks]

2 minutes ago, LegoModularFan said:

I know also that Marcos Bessa (a.k.a. @marcosbessa) and Mark Stafford (a.k.a. @Nabii) and they've both MOC Expert tags but I agree that it would be great to create a Lego Designer tags! With some research, I'm sure that it would be possible to find some other designers having EB accounts...

I initially knew of and already was following Mark Stafford, but not Marcos before! 

Perhaps, we could have not just have a tag for designers, but a rank unto itself, much like special designations which are irrespective of post count such as Fellow and Lady for instance.

[Bricked1980]

4 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Perhaps, we could have not just have a tag for designers, but a rank unto itself, much like special designations which are irrespective of post count such as Fellow and Lady for instance.

Yes this would make sense. It would also prove that the person is legit and not just a fake imposter claiming to be a lego designer.

[LegoModularFan]

 

15 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Perhaps, we could have not just have a tag for designers, but a rank unto itself, much like special designations which are irrespective of post count such as Fellow and Lady for instance.

That’s a great idea!

19 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Better still are there any that post comments regularly?

It would be great if they can post regularly, they can take feedback from the AFOLs and see what they can do better and what the AFOLs want to see in the sets appealing to the AFOL audience although they always do great job! It’s really great and appreciated that Nabii is answering the questions of the AFOLs individually! Also perhaps give very very small information about the upcoming sets  

[Bricked1980]

Last night I was watching over this video again where Mike Psiaki gives a talk about the design process behind DD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9YgzRlUsCk

At around 21:18 in the video he mentions that the design work for DD was completed in March 2017. This made me think that somewhere deep within the Lego HQ the design for next years modular is quite likely already completed or close to completion. That's quite a tantalizing thought. 

[LegoModularFan]

On 05/02/2018 at 11:20 AM, Bricked1980 said:

Ok, so I know it's a bit early in the year to start speculating, but just wondered what would everyone like to see for the 2019 modular? Do you think it will be a hotel as hinted at in the designer video for DD?

Do you think they will carry on with the art deco style or will the set return to the more familiar style of past modulars?

You see, it wasn’t really early 

5 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

At around 21:18 in the video he mentions that the design work for DD was completed in March 2017. This made me think that somewhere deep within the Lego HQ the design for next years modular is quite likely already completed or close to completion. That's quite a tantalizing thought. 

Wow, seriously WOW! That’s unbelievable, they had already started working on the DD before the official press release of the AS! Thinking that we will need to wait for about 6-8 months for the official press release and maybe Lego designers have already almost finished the next modular! Oh  

Hey, then what hinders TLG from making two modulars per year?! I know the other Creator Expert sets. It would be great if they could continue to get their normal modulars released in January and 16x32 modulars released in June (sorry for bringing back the idea of some pages before)...

[Digger of Bricks]

8 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Last night I was watching over this video again where Mike Psiaki gives a talk about the design process behind DD.

Psiaki? Isn't he by any chance a Eurobricks member too?

21 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Yes this would make sense. It would also prove that the person is legit and not just a fake imposter claiming to be a lego designer.

Now a simple tag could serve the same purpose just as well, but a rank would catch a lot more users' eyes.

9 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

That’s a great idea!

TLG representatives here get their own rank, so why not designers if they wish? 

 

[LegoModularFan]

3 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Psiaki? Isn't he by any chance a Eurobricks member too?

Already searched and couldn’t find, but who knows, you may find him...

5 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

 

 

I always searched for this topic, thanks for sharing it!

[Digger of Bricks]

12 minutes ago, LegoModularFan said:

I always searched for this topic, thanks for sharing it!

You're welcome! 

[Faefrost]

13 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Last night I was watching over this video again where Mike Psiaki gives a talk about the design process behind DD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9YgzRlUsCk

At around 21:18 in the video he mentions that the design work for DD was completed in March 2017. This made me think that somewhere deep within the Lego HQ the design for next years modular is quite likely already completed or close to completion. That's quite a tantalizing thought. 

That’s about right. The development cycle for something like a modular is 18-24 months. The cycle for things like an entire theme, or in particular a Licensed theme can extend out well beyond that from start to finish. Right now Lego knows what the next Modular is, and is probably close to a final design of it. Getting it ready to start the preparation for production. They likely also have determined what the subject of the next one after that will be at least tentatively, and are just starting the preliminary design process. Remember there are production and logistic cycles to these things. They have to produce the set. Schedule factory time. Refine not just the design, but the build and instructions. Get the art and packaging done, etc. ship the various parts and sets around the world to put it all together. 9-10 months for that is not unreasonable. 

They probably also have a pretty solid “to do” list for the modulars. Probably stretching out over 5-10 releases. Nothing concrete. Just subjects that they would like to cover or have discussed in their brainstorming and planning meetings. The list probably evolves every year. 

[Bricked1980]

8 hours ago, Faefrost said:

That’s about right. The development cycle for something like a modular is 18-24 months. The cycle for things like an entire theme, or in particular a Licensed theme can extend out well beyond that from start to finish.

I would have thought this too but in the video Mike says that the work on DD started in September 2016 and was completed in March 2017. That's only 7 months though which sounds like an very short amount of time to design something as complex as a modular building.